Joseph Barboza
Joseph Barboza jr | |
---|---|
Mobster | |
Children | 3 |
Allegiance | Patriarca crime family |
Conviction(s) | Murder (1971) |
Criminal penalty | 5 years' imprisonment |
Boxing career | |
Nationality | American |
Other names | The Baron |
Statistics | |
Weight(s) | Light heavyweight |
Boxing record | |
Total fights | 11 |
Wins | 8 |
Losses | 3 |
Joseph Barboza Jr. (
Early life
Barboza was born on September 20, 1932, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, to Portuguese emigrants from Valpaços, Joseph Barboza Sr. (born José Barbosa), a middle-weight boxer, and Palmeda Camille, who was a seamstress.[2] His father was a Los Angeles-based prizefighter who competed in only two professional boxing matches; his debut bout was against Pete Frisco on January 27, 1933, and his second match was against Carlos Chipres on April 27, 1933.[3] Barboza had two brothers; Donald and Anthony Barboza and a sister, Anne Houghton.[4] Barboza was fluent in Portuguese, Italian and Spanish. He was married to a Jewish woman and fathered a daughter in 1965 and also a son and lived in Chelsea, Massachusetts, while employed by the Patriarca crime family.
Professional boxing career
Barboza would pursue a career as a professional
Criminal career
Escape from prison
He was first sent to prison in 1950 to the
Entry into organized crime
Barboza may have first been exposed to figures of Boston organized crime while incarcerated at
It was widely believed[citation needed] in law official circles that Barboza had performed contract killings for Raymond L. S. Patriarca. By January 1966, Barboza was considered a powerful crime figure in the Boston underworld. For disturbing the peace one night, he slugged a Metropolitan District Commission Police Officer, Joe MacLean, and received a six-month sentence. After his release from prison and his graduation from an expensive cooking school he was shipped out on the SS President Wilson to the Orient.[citation needed]
A few notorious victims on his murder roster included
Turning government witness
By 1966, he had a very turbulent position in the Boston underworld. He had been shot at while standing outside his home in
In October 1966, he came to terms with his falling-out with the organized crime element after he and three local hoodlums were arrested on weapons charges while cruising the Combat Zone in Boston. His accomplices were released on bail, but Barboza had his bail set at $100,000 which he could not afford. Nobody from the Patriarca crime family came down to post his bail and he heard that it was the Mafia family who tipped off the cops.
Two of his associates, Bratsos and DePrisco, went to raise Barboza's bail. Five weeks later, after raising $59,000 the pair were murdered in the Nite Lite Cafe by soldiers serving under Ralph "Ralphie Chong" Lamattina, who served in the crew of Ilario Zannino. After relieving them of their bail money, they stuffed their bodies in the back seat of Bratsos' car and dumped it in South Boston, hoping to throw blame onto the Irish gangs. However, a mob associate named Joseph Lanzi tipped the cops about the murder. On April 18, 1967, he was murdered by Jerry Angiulo's enforcers Carmen Gagliardi, Frank Otero and Ben DeChristoforo.[11]
The FBI began diligent efforts to turn Barboza into an informant. In December, Joe Amico was murdered. The following month, after a ten-day trial, Barboza was sentenced to a five-year term at Walpole on the weapons charges. In the summer of 1967, Steve Flemmi met with Joseph and informed him that Gennaro Angiulo and his brothers had plans to murder him. In June 1967, Barboza turned
Barboza went on to testify against Raymond Patriarca and many high-ranking members and associates of the New England family. On June 20, Patriarca and
Angiulo was later found not guilty. Despite efforts by reporters to coax jurors to explain their deliberations, none did. Twenty years later, however, jury foreman Kenneth Matthews said none of the sixteen jurors had found Barboza believable, stating "He didn't help the state at all. He wasn't reliable. He was nothing as a witness".
On January 30, 1968, a bomb was planted in the car of Barboza's attorney, John E. Fitzgerald, future
Barboza was given a one-year prison term, including time served. He was paroled in March 1969, under the name of "Joseph Bentley", and relocated to
False testimony against rivals
While working for the FBI, Agent
Out of the six people convicted for the murder, only Ronald "Ronnie the Pig" Cassesso and Wilfred Roy French were actually involved and present in the alley where the murder took place. FBI agent Paul Rico had offered French and Cassesso leniency if they would corroborate Barboza's false testimony. Both French and Cassesso refused the offer and when French was threatened with the death penalty he responded by telling Rico to "warm up the electric chair". Cassesso died in prison 30 years later. French was finally freed 34 years later.
Winter Hill enforcer
Martorano also revealed that Vincent Flemmi had admitted to murdering Deegan.[15]
Tameleo and Greco died in prison after serving almost 30 years, and Salvati and Limone were finally released in 1997 and 2001, respectively. The families of Greco, Tameleo, Salvati and Limone filed lawsuits totaling in excess of one billion dollars filed against the Federal government. In July 2007, U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner in Boston found the bureau helped convict the four men and the U.S. Government was ordered to pay $100 million in damages to the four defendants.[citation needed]
Death
Barboza was released on October 30, 1975
Barboza's attorney F. Lee Bailey said about his death "With all due respect to my former client, I don't think society has suffered a great loss".[16]
Ilario Zannino, chief enforcer of Gennaro Angiulo, was later overheard on a hidden bug saying that it was J. R. Russo who had assassinated Barboza. In the conversation, Zannino described Russo as "a genius with a carbine".[citation needed]
Barboza is buried in South Dartmouth Cemetery in Dartmouth, Massachusetts.[18]
Victims
Num | Victim | Date of death | Reason |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Harold Hannon | August 4, 1964 | Revenge for the murder of Tommy Sullivan. |
2 | Wilfred J. Delaney | August 4, 1964 | Ally of Harold Hannon. |
3 | Theodore Deegan | March 12, 1965 | Revenge for the robberies Deegan had committed against Patriarca crime family. |
4 | Romeo A. Martin | July 9, 1965 | |
5 | Edward McLaughlin | October 16, 1965 | Rival gang leader. |
6 | Raymond DiStasio | November 15, 1965 | Refused to pay a debt of $15,000.[19] |
7 | John B. O'Neal | November 15, 1965 | Witness of the murder of Ray DiStasio.[19] |
8 | Cornelius Hughes | May 25, 1966 | Rival gang member. |
9 | Samuel Lindenbaum | May 25, 1966 | Ally of Cornelius Hughes. |
10 | Stephen Hughes | September 23, 1966 | Rival gang member. |
11 | Clay Wilson | Summer 1970[14] |
See also
- List of prison escapes
- List of unsolved murders
References
- ^ "Joe Barboza - A 1970 Interview With 'The Animal'"
- ^ a b Mendes, Eurico (January 23, 2019). "20th Century Fox produz filme sobre o mafioso Joseph Barboza" (PDF). Portuguese Times (in Portuguese). Retrieved May 12, 2020.
Joseph Barboza Jr. nasceu a 20 de setembro de 1932 em New Bedford, Massachusetts, onde os mastros dos graciosos navios baleeiros tinham dado lugar às negras chaminés das fábricas de têxteis e já havia ao tempo numerosa comunidade portuguesa. Era o segundo dos cinco filhos de Joseph Barboza Sr. e Palmetta "Patty" Barboza (nascida Camille). Ele nascido nos Açores em 1903 e ela em Massachusetts por volta de 1908, embora algumas biografias digam que eram ambos naturais de Lisboa.
- Boxrec
- ^ "Donald J. Barboza, Sr". Currentobituary.com. June 11, 2015. Retrieved May 12, 2020.
- ^ "Joe Barboza". BoxRec. Retrieved September 5, 2017.
- ISBN 9780446618885.
Barboza was a Portuguese-American, from New Bedford, and he dreamed of being the first non-Italian to be inducted into the Mafia. But behind his back, Mafia boss Raymond Patriarca referred to him as "the nigger."
- ISBN 9781439167731.
Sometimes, Vinnie would slip and refer to Barboza as "the Nigger." He'd quickly follow that up and say that wasn't Vinnie's name for Barboza, but that the nickname was out on the streets. "He's sorta dark, as you know," Vinnie would explain.
- ISBN 9781555538224.
Upon reading the letter, the boss called Barboza a "dirty nigger bastard" and vowed to kill him — inside or outside of prison.
- ISBN 9781439167731.
As a stab at irony, Teresa would say that Barboza "hated Negroes" and had killed at least two guys solely because of their race.
- ^ Sherman p. 96
- ^ Teresa
- ^ a b c "Limone v. United States, 497 F. Supp. 2d 143 (D. Mass. 2007)". Court Listener. July 26, 2007. Retrieved May 12, 2020.
- ^ "How 'Animal' Hitman Met His Death In SF's Sunset District". KPIX-TV. May 15, 2013. Retrieved May 12, 2020.
The FBI set him up in a culinary school in Santa Rosa. He got a job in the kitchen of a freighter, and he also once worked for the Rathskeller Restaurant in San Francisco.
- ^ UPI. Retrieved May 12, 2020.
In Santa Rosa, Calif., during the summer of 1970, Joe "The Animal" Barboza murdered small-time thug Clay Wilson, while under the protection of the federal witness protection program. As this was the 26th murder committed by Barboza that the FBI knew about [...]The FBI believed that he'd already committed 26 murders.
- ^ Mahony, Edmund H. (October 12, 2000). "PROBE INTO FBI SUGGESTS SIX WRONGLY CONVICTED". Hartford Courant.
What's more, Martorano has said that Vincent J. "Jimmy the Bear" Flemmi -- Stephen Flemmi's brother -- also admitted killing Deegan. Martorano's account of the two admissions is not necessarily contradictory because, in the 1960s, Vincent Flemmi and Barboza were partners and Vincent Flemmi has long been suspected of being a Barboza accomplice in the Deegan murder.
- ^ Newspapers.com.
- ^ Connelly, Sherryl (July 26, 2014). "Heinous Boston mob killer became government informant, was one of first in witness protection: new book". New York Daily News.
On Feb. 11, 1976, Barboza, living under the name Joe Donati, left his San Francisco apartment and was hit by four shotgun blasts fired from a Ford van. The Animal was carrying a Colt .38, but never got the chance to use it.
- ^ "BURIALS AND BURIAL PLACES" (PDF). 1997. Retrieved May 12, 2020.
- ^ a b Sherman p. 118–119
Further reading
- ISBN 978-1-55553-822-4.
- Messick, Hank; Barboza, Joe (1975). Barboza.
- ISBN 9780312026196.
- Ranalli, Ralph (2001). Deadly Alliance: The FBI's Secret Partnership With the Mob. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0380811939.
- ISBN 978-0385027182.
External links
- McKenzie, Phoebe (September 30, 2008). "Joseph "The Animal" Barboza". Find a Grave. Retrieved May 12, 2020.
- "Joe Barboza". Box Rec. Retrieved May 12, 2020.
- Jones, Thom L. (January 11, 2012). "Joe Barboza: Boston Barbarian". Gangsters Inc. Retrieved May 12, 2020.
- "The Exonerated". November 22, 2008. Archived from the original on June 22, 2008. Retrieved May 12, 2020 – via Wayback Machine.